Beyond the money: grantors supporting their grantees

Abstract

This study analyses the relationship between grant-making foundations (grantors) and operative nonprofit organizations (grantees) to determine whether a positive association exists between foundations’ intervention beyond the money and grantees’ organizational capacity development. Data are collected using a survey of grantees who received funding from a Foundation of Banking Origin (FOB) in the context of Italy. The analyses portray three capacity-building factors that FOBs can deploy in addition to the financial grant, namely, operative support, goal alignment, and performance oversight. The results endorse our hypotheses that both the amount of operative support provided by the foundation and the higher perception of goal congruence between grantor and grantees are positively correlated with the organizational capacity of the grantee. Our results also suggest that the benefits of increased oversight prevail over the drawbacks.